23-Jun-08

The New York Times reviews the morality of architects building for the lovely regimes of China, Abu Dhabi, and Kazakhstan, and such past patrons as Hitler, Stalin, the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein.

“The ideological issue is as old as architecture itself. By designing high-profile buildings that bolster the profile of a powerful client, do architects implicitly sanction the client’s actions or collaborate in symbolic mythmaking?”

Lucky Bush Library architect Robert A. M. Stern is joined to the ranks of tyrant handmaidens, but unbowed.

30-Mar-08

The impetuous youth of Long Island’s Ward Melville High School are taking Harry Truman to trial, charged with crimes against humanity for the Hiroshima bombing.

Joseph Stalin is among the witnesses summoned from beyond to make the case against Ol’ Harry.

The defense bizarrely offers intimidating the Russians as part of Truman’s bomb drop alibi, usually a point offered by Truman critics. [Or un-slick Truman apologists like this Enola Gay pilot-related site.]